This was a test recording/intro to my Sound Cloud page as required by the MPR class.

Audio Recording on Tuesday night

  For my final composition I chose to use the provided template which turned out to be a bit more challenging than I anticipated.  I found it much more difficult to follow the flow of someone else’s idea than it would have been to create an original score.  Lesson well learned!  

For the template I was instructed to write the accompaniment in the piano part for measures: 6-9; 24-27; and 29-30, the melody in the sax part for measures: 5-9; 21-25; and 38-42, and then write the bas line in the bass part for measures: 12-13; 16-20; and 37-40.  That doesn’t seem too difficult does it?  Never under estimate the magnitude of a Full Sail project!  Even with step by step instructions I found it frustrating trying to fit creativity in the confines of composition rules.  

The piece is written in Bb at a tempo of 100 bpm in 4/4 time.  I used mostly crescendi for my dynamics.  As you will hear, forte and mezzo-forte are my favorite dynamics for this piece.  As for articulations, staccato and ties are a girl’s best friend.  The rhythmic accents were fun to play with but also very challenging for me.

Professor Donohue, what would you recommend to easily fall in to a preexisting rhythmic pattern if you are not comfortable with 1/16 note counts?  How do you create a stand alone melody line without doubling notes with other instruments?  For m38 I found it difficult to find something for the sax to do that didn’t sound sluggish or step on the bass line.  I think measures 38-42 were the most challenging for that reason.  I would prefer to have written something more dramatic.  Any ideas?

Green Tammy Final Rough

For my final version I had to make quite a few changes due to misused NCTs.  I started at M5, beat 3 for the Sax part. I prepared my NCT by changing it to an eighth note and then I added an eighth note a step in the opposite direction.  In M8 of the piano F clef, I removed an unnecessary accidental and replaced it with a chord tone.  I had to change some of my rhythmic choices to accommodate the rules of NCT and imaginary bar lines.  For example, in M37 of the bass line, I had to sacrifice sixteenth notes that felt good for a more basic eighth note rhythm.   Also, in Bars 21-25 I had to change the rhythm to add in NCTs.  Finally, in Bar 41, beat 3 I changed an NCT to a chord tone to make a smoother transition.  

I have to admit it was much easier to make the corrections than it was to produce the project.  Overall, I don’t think the feel of the song was drastically changed but I now have a better understanding of how to use NCTs.

Green Tammy Final Version

The Prayer of St. Francis
Key: A
BPM= 90
Reggae

This is a clip of one of the songs my group, 7-fold Manna fest is working on for our first project.  I used this as the 2nd project in the music genres class.

Below are the style traits used:

Drums
I used a a combination of the Basic Reggae and Reggae Clucks from the reading.  I found a drum pattern on my Yamaha keyboard that I added breaks and rolls into.
The kick and snare play the downbeat.  The hats play constant 1/16s with some triplets and swing.

Bass
The bass plays on the downbeats starting on the root. I used a combo of a sub bass with an electric bass.

Guitar
I used a muted guitar with reverb to make it sound like 1/16 notes for skanks. The close chords play on the "and" of beats 1 and 3.

Organ
I used the Round Reggae organ from Logic's library to play straight chords and some arpeggios under the vocals.

Piano
I used the piano to accents some of the harmonies.

Tammy Y. Green